Alkaloids are highly important pharmacophores and currently available methods for the synthesis of substituted pyridine based alkaloids are tedious, lengthy and low yielding.
The natural products Marinoquinoline A-F, Aplidiopsamine A and related natural products have very good antimalarial activity but till date their synthesis is not known.
Sangoi et al in Marine Drugs, 2008, 6, 578-586 reports the acetylcholinerase-inhibiting activity of pyrrole derivatives obtained from a novel marine gliding bacterium, Rapithidix thailandica. 
Gerfaud et al in Angew Chem Int, 2009, 48, 572-577 reported a process which leads to a rapid constriction of functionalized phenanthridines and isoquinolines by a domino aminopalladation/C-H functionalization sequence.
Carroll et al in JOC, vol 75, No: 23, 2010, 8291 describes Aplidiopsamine A isolated from the temperate Australian ascidian Aplidiopsis confluata and its anti-malarial properties.
But there is a need in the art to provide synthetic routes of synthesis of anti-malarial compounds isolated from natural resources such that therapies are available for drug resistant strains of plasmodium. It would be advantageous if such processes are simple, with reactants freely available and result in good yields and selectivity.
Further there is a continuous need for novel compounds that possess anti-malarial properties, such that clinicians have alternatives available to combat drug resistance in subjects infected with malaria.